Children and Youth

Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times

News about Children and Youth, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jul. 15, 2015

Pew Research Center releases report based on United States Census Bureau data that finds black children in 2013 were almost four times as likely as white children to be living in poverty; rate remained stable for black children even as it fell for other demographic groups from 2010 to 2013; number of black children in poverty has overtaken number of poor white children, despite fact that white children far outnumber black children in US. MORE

Jul. 7, 2015

Study in journal Current Biology suggests children on autism spectrum fail to adjust their breath intake as quickly as neurotypical children when they are exposed to pleasant or unpleasant smells; results could lead to way to diagnose autism in younger children. MORE

Jul. 6, 2015

American youths are plugged in and tuned out of the real world for many more hours of the day than experts consider healthy for normal development. MORE

Jul. 1, 2015

Joint report by the World Health Organization and Unicef finds that one in three people worldwide, or some 2.4 billion, live without sanitation facilities; suggest dirty drinking water and open defecation, among other causes, are set to subvert global gains in child survival rates and other health measurements. MORE

Jul. 1, 2015

California Gov Jerry Brown signs into law requirement that all schoolchildren receive vaccinations; law allows for medical exemptions but does not allow exemptions for personal or religious reasons; makes state first in country to have such a mandate. MORE

Jun. 28, 2015

Claire Martin Prototype column highlights HopSkipDrive, Los Angeles-area ride-sharing service founded by three mothers to help working families maintain busy children's schedules amid notorious traffic; observes that service transports children to school, lessons, practice and other activities for $20 per ride. MORE

Jun. 26, 2015

California legislature passes sweeping bill that will end personal or religious exemptions for mandatory vaccines; measure would make it so that only children with medical reasons would be exempt; follows rise in the number of unvaccinated children throughout state and local pockets in which overall immunity level has grown dangerously low; Gov Jerry Brown is widely expected to sign bill. MORE

Jun. 24, 2015

Instead of telling children with hyperactivity and attention problems to sit still, perhaps we should encourage them to wriggle at will. MORE

Jun. 23, 2015

United Nations Children's Fund reports that while underdeveloped countries have shown overall improvement in conditions for children, statistics are averages and hide fact that world's poorest children are worse off than ever. MORE

Jun. 23, 2015

Study in journal Current Biology concludes that children as young as age 3 will show Good Samaritan instinct, coming to to aid of a victim, and displaying sense of victim-focused justice. MORE

Jun. 20, 2015

Fifty-one child monks are evacuated from isolated Buddhist monastery in Lho, Nepal, due to shortage of food in wake of April earthquake; evacuation is unusual as it is first time unaccompanied minors are officially airlifted since earthquake, procedure that required diligent planning and execution. MORE

Jun. 19, 2015

Tyler Kepner On Baseball column notes that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is launching new initiative for children called Play Ball intended to increase participation in all forms of baseball. MORE

Jun. 18, 2015

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column relates details of trip to Baltimore with Austin Meyer, winner of annual win-a-trip contest; examines case of Malachi, two-year-old child in foster care who remains unable to speak, likely due to lead poisoning he suffered early in life; holdsMalachi, whose father is in prison and whose mother is unable to care for him, represents deep inequality faced by children in poverty-stricken areas through no choice of their own. MORE

Jun. 18, 2015

BioMarin Pharmaceutical reports that its experimental drug for dwarfism improved growth in children by significant amount in preliminary study. MORE

Jun. 16, 2015

Parents of obese children are often in denial of their child's weight, frustrating health workers and compounding health problems associated with condition. MORE

Jun. 15, 2015

Obama administration defends large immigrant detention centers in Southwest, saying they are needed to avert overwhelming influx like that in 2014, but women detainees say environment and uncertain future are taking deep toll; centers, housing thousands of women and children caught illegally crossing border, are criticized by lawmakers, advocates and religious leaders who say they compound suffering of those fleeing abuse. MORE

Jun. 14, 2015

Child preachers are leading some Pentecostal congregations in Brazil; young preachers embody charisma and showmanship emblematic of Pentecostal faith while combining it with innocence of childhood. MORE

Jun. 14, 2015

Op-Ed article by Thomas Beller describes how his son suffered from lead poisoning due to careless sanding of neighboring building's exterior paint; warns of the dangers of lead poisoning to young children and their development; calls for holding homeowners responsible for making sure contractors adhere to proper safety procedures. MORE

Jun. 14, 2015

TED conference organizers are reconsidering their policy of not allowing children under 16 to attend events after entrepreneur Jessica Lackley tweets about having to leave Monterey, Calif, conference because she had brought her 5-month-old son. MORE

Jun. 9, 2015

United Nations Sec Gen Ban Ki-moon, under pressure from United States and Israel and in opposition to advice of senior envoy Leila Zerrougui, chooses to omit both Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas from list of armies and guerrilla groups that harm children; list is part of annual report on children's rights violations that includes information on children who were killed and injured by both groups. MORE

Jun. 7, 2015

Children's book publishers are acknowledging transgender equality movement by releasing books in different genres, including science fiction and young adult romance, that feature transgender children and teenagers; industry is catching up to broader culture after years of ignoring social trend toward acceptance. MORE

May. 31, 2015

Gardiner Harris Dispatch column explains that pollution in New Delhi, particularly air pollution, is reason he is moving his family away after three years there as New York Times correspondent; notes that growing body of evidence about negative health impacts of New Delhi's air quality, particularly for children, has raised ethical questions about expatriates who choose to raise their children there. MORE

May. 28, 2015

Nick Bilton Disruptions column suggests that online games allowing users to exclude, promote or demote other players sends wrong message to children and is teaching them to label and bully. MORE

May. 21, 2015

Dr Mark Olfson study published in the New England Journal of Medicine finds rates of severe mental illness among children has fallen significantly over generation, countering data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies showing rise in some conditions; study comes at time of debate over incidence and treatment of childhood mental illness and points to need for common rate baseline. MORE

May. 20, 2015

The vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae type B lowers the risk for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer. MORE

May. 19, 2015

Study published in JAMA Pediatrics finds that suicide rate among black children has nearly doubled since early 1990s, while rate for white children has declined. MORE

May. 17, 2015

Small subset of children are gravitating toward more and more dangerous forms of extreme sports, raising question of whether parents should allow them to engage in such risky activities; question is particularly pressing in era of intensified focus on child safety. MORE

May. 17, 2015

In Transit blog; many hotels have begun offering special services for children's bedtime. MORE

May. 11, 2015

Op-Ed article by Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, examines emerging research showing that large-scale social programs can yield substantial long-term benefits for poor children; observes that big data has produced findings that undercut skepticism about past programs, including notion that safety net discourages productivity; opposes budget cuts that would slash current programs. MORE

May. 10, 2015

Ginia Bellafante Big City column laments dwindling funding for Police Athletic Leagues in New York City and around country; holds that type of relationships leagues foster between police officers and underprivileged children are especially important in light of recent police-involved shootings. MORE

May. 6, 2015

Unaccompanied children, most of them from Eritrea, are among most innocent victims of human trafficking machine that is luring African migrants to chaos in Libya and onto Mediterranean Sea; International Organization for Migration says out of 170,000 migrants coming to Italy by sea from Libya in 2014, more than 13,000 were children traveling alone, and 3,394 were Eritrean. MORE

May. 5, 2015

The Upshot; several factors may contribute to 'Manhattan effect' in which children across income brackets who grow up in Manhattan earn less later in life than children who grow up in cities elsewhere; effect may be driven by timing of data collection, life priorities of Manhattan families, lower marriage rates or under-performing schools; concerns are most pronounced for children from poor families. MORE

May. 1, 2015

Israeli security officials detain two young Palestinian boys for throwing stones at Israeli bus, latest example of country's crackdown on children. MORE

Apr. 29, 2015

Pew Research Center analysis finds that sharp drop in number of children attempting to enter United States illegally is due to Mexico's crackdown on such immigrants traveling without guardians as they flee violence in Central American countries. MORE

Apr. 27, 2015

Op-Ed article by policy experts Roberto Suro and Marcelo M Suarez-Orozco cites evidence that one in 15 American children, nearly all of whom are native-born United States citizens, has an unauthorized immigrant parent; argues children pay price, in form of anxiety and delayed development, as nation debates reform and fears of deportation rise; argues voters should keep that in mind as they consider immigration policy reform. MORE

Apr. 23, 2015

California legislation that would require almost all children in state to be vaccinated unless a valid medical reason is proven moves forward in State Legislature; if bill passes several more committee hurdles, California could become one of only three states in nation requiring vaccinations as a condition for attending public or private schools. MORE

Apr. 21, 2015

Human Rights Watch reports that tens of thousands of Senegalese children are being forced by Quranic schools to beg in streets; blames government for failure to carry out 2005 law against trafficking and exploitation of children. MORE

Apr. 20, 2015

Childhood stress may be a factor in a disease without a clear cause that hits adults too. MORE

Apr. 19, 2015

Bruce Feiler This Life column discusses the difficulty of getting tech-obsessed children to turn away from their screens and make eye contact. MORE

Apr. 18, 2015

Ron Lieber Your Money column observes that children are particularly attractive targets for identity theft because their credit reports are clean; notes difficulty for parents in shielding children from possible identity theft given that most do not have credit history. MORE

Apr. 16, 2015

Hundreds of California residents gather at State Capitol in Sacramento to protest bill that would eliminate right to abstain from vaccinating children against contagious diseases; gathering succeeds in stalling State Senate Education Committee vote on legislation by one week. MORE

Apr. 14, 2015

Unicef reports the number of children displaced in northeast Nigeria by Boko Haram militants has doubled from the past year to 800,000 and comprises half of the 1.5 million made homeless by the war. MORE

Apr. 2, 2015

Hillary Rodham Clinton joins Chirlane McCray, first lady of New York City, to announce Talk to Your Baby Campaign; initiative seeks to raise awareness of the importance of cognitive development in young children; event provides welcome opportunity for both women to burnish their images. MORE

Mar. 31, 2015

Study published in journal Lancet Infectious Diseases finds that strain of common respiratory virus known as enterovirus 68 may be responsible for partially paralyzing more than 100 children nationwide since August 2014. MORE

Mar. 29, 2015

Etgar Keret Lives essay describes emotional confrontation with taxi driver in Tel Aviv while taking his four-year-old son to visit his grandmother, and resulting need to explain subtle emotional cues and clues of conflict to the child. MORE

Mar. 26, 2015

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column examines rampant corruption and graft in Angola that has become a major factor in malnutrition and child corruption; holds corruption, like the worms that infect so many of nation's children, has deeply parasitical effect; castigates Western oil companies and banks that work closely with Angolan officials, enabling kleptocracy; calls for greater transparency and pressure on leaders to use funds for good. MORE

Mar. 19, 2015

Dr Terrie E Taylor study in The New England Journal of Medicine finds that child deaths from malaria often result from swelling of brain. MORE

Mar. 19, 2015

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column examines extreme plight of children in Angola, deeply corrupt African nation with world's highest rate of child mortality; contends starvation, illness and death are all the more galling in light of Angola's oil and diamond wealth; holds West should do more to oppose Pres Jose Eduardo Dos Santos as he pillages his country and leaves children to die. MORE

Mar. 15, 2015

Op-Ed article by author Michelle Huneven describes reasoning behind her decision to not have children. MORE

Mar. 14, 2015

Death of 15-year-old Tyreek Riley of Brooklyn, who suffered a fatal fall trying to leap from roof of four-story building to adjacent rooftop in his Crown Heights neighborhood, underscores risk to young daredevils testing New York's perilous urban landscape. MORE

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In a withering critique, a federal court judge in California ruled that the U.S. detention of children and their mothers who crossed the border illegally is a serious violation of a longstanding court settlement.